O2 Academy Brixton to remain closed following fatal crush

16 January 2023 by
O2 Academy Brixton to remain closed following fatal crush

The O2 Academy Brixton in London is to remain closed for a further three months after a fatal crush left two people dead and one in critical condition.

Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, and security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, died when ticketless fans tried to force entry to a sold-out concert by Nigerian afro beats artist Asake on 15 December.

The venue's licence will now be suspended until 16 April following a request by the Metropolitan Police, who are investigating the incident.

In an application for the licence to be revoked police said it was apparent staff had "completely lost control of the situation" on the night of the concert.

The O2 Academy Brixton will be required to submit a variation application to change the conditions of its licence to address police concerns over the way it is run.

Councillor Mahamed Hashi, Lambeth's cabinet member for safer communities, said: "The families and friends of Rebecca Ikumelo and Gaby Hutchinson have suffered an incredibly painful bereavement and other people have suffered serious injury in this incident.

"I thank the sub-committee for their efforts today to ensure that we see no repeat of December's shocking scenes. They have carefully considered all the issues and listened to all parties before coming to this considered and important decision.

"It is now up to the O2 Academy Brixton to work with the authorities and come up with workable changes to their license, to deal with these matters, and to make a variation application."

The decision follows a 28-day interim closure order made by the council at the end of last year.

Academy Music Group, which owns the O2 Academy Brixton, said on Saturday (14 January) that it had "reflected deeply" on the incident and the venue would remain closed while it cooperated with police enquiries.

The Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email

Start the working day with The Caterer’s free breakfast briefing email

Sign Up and manage your preferences below

Check mark icon
Thank you

You have successfully signed up for the Caterer Breakfast Briefing Email and will hear from us soon!

Jacobs Media Group is honoured to be the recipient of the 2020 Queen's Award for Enterprise.

The highest official awards for UK businesses since being established by royal warrant in 1965. Read more.

close

Ad Blocker detected

We have noticed you are using an adblocker and – although we support freedom of choice – we would like to ask you to enable ads on our site. They are an important revenue source which supports free access of our website's content, especially during the COVID-19 crisis.

trade tracker pixel tracking